Weekend tech reading: OnLive reboots with new owner after layoffs

OnLive's alleged bankruptcy filing leaves former employees in the dark "OnLive ... will continue to operate," the statement read. "...there is no expected interruption of any OnLive services." It was a statement that read as an assurance: everything is fine, we're still here, it's business as usual. But it was clear that everything wasn't fine. Earlier yesterday, it was reported that all of OnLive's 150-200 staff were laid off. The business was reportedly sold to a mystery investor whose identity is yet to be revealed, and uncertainty continues to hang over the cloud-streaming service. The Verge

Julian Assange urges US to end Wikileaks 'witch-hunt' Julian Assange has urged the US to end its "witch-hunt" against Wikileaks, in his first public statement since entering Ecuador's London embassy. He also called for the release of Bradley Manning, who is awaiting trial in the US accused of leaking classified documents to the Wikileaks site. Mr Assange spoke from a balcony at the embassy and thanked Ecuador's president, who has granted him asylum. He faces extradition to Sweden over sexual assault claims, which he denies. BBC

Forget Apple, forget Facebook: here's the one company that actually terrifies Google execs It's very easy to get caught up in the Android versus iPhone duel and Google's recruiting battles with its newly-public Silicon Valley neighbor, Facebook. But neither one of those companies worry Google executives as much as another that is actively taking money out of their pockets. This company is from Washington, but no, it's not Microsoft. Google's real rival, and real competition to watch over the next few years is Amazon. San Francisco Chronicle

HP ready to make a new push with consumer tablets Hewlett-Packard is apparently diving back into the consumer tablet business. The company is apparently developing a new Mobility unit to concentrate on consumer tablets, says an internal memo first published by the Verge. An HP representative confirmed the memo's authenticity, though he declined to comment on its substance. The memo is the work of Todd Bradley, head of the company's Printing and Personal Systems Group. CNET

A rare look inside Facebook’s Oregon data center Prineville, Oregon: When the temperature creeps above 90 degrees in this rural community, it’s the perfect time to see why Facebook decided to build its first data center here. That’s when the outside air cooling system -- which collects the cool, dry Oregon air and pushes it through filters and misters to chill the thousands of servers that hold all those Facebook Likes and photos -- has to work overtime. Gigaom

Mat Honan: How I resurrected my digital life after an epic hacking When my data died, it was the cloud that killed it. The triggers hackers used to break into my accounts and delete my files were all cloud-based services -- iCloud, Google, and Amazon. Some pundits have latched onto this detail to indict our era of cloud computing. Yet just as the cloud enabled my disaster, so too was it my salvation. Yes, you can die by the cloud. But you can live by it too. Wired

Self-charging battery both generates and stores energy Renewable energy technologies generally consist of two distinct processes: energy generation (using sources such as coal, solar, wind, etc.) and energy storage (such as batteries). These two processes are always accomplished through two separate units, with the first process converting the original form of energy to electricity, and the second process converting electricity to chemical energy. Phys.org

Google warns of using Adobe Reader -- particularly on Linux On its August Patch Day, Adobe has fixed numerous critical memory-related bugs in Reader for Windows and Mac OS X – but has chosen to overlook Linux users. The researchers who discovered the holes now fear that potential attackers could find enough clues to build an exploit by comparing the current Windows version of Reader with the previous one. This would leave Linux users defenceless. H-Online

Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram A bioengineer and geneticist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data -- around 700 terabytes -- in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times. The work, carried out by George Church and Sri Kosuri, basically treats DNA as just another digital storage device. ExtremeTech

Private justice: How Hollywood money put a Brit behind bars Anton Vickerman, 38-year old owner of the once popular link site surfthechannel.com (STC), was sentenced to four years in prison on Tuesday by a British judge. But the prosecutors sitting across the courtroom from him didn't work for the Crown -- they were lawyers for the movie studio trade group Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT). Ars Technica

The condition: chronic self-disclosure A decade ago, the internet's signature feature was obfuscation. You could invent a new identity; embellish your life to make it that much more interesting; buff out the imperfections; or just hide without feeling like an anti-social creep for it. Message boards, chat rooms, and nascent blogs, all depended on a technology-induced veil, a curtain that shielded online actions. The Awl

Wondering how far magazines must fall Making a weekly newsmagazine has always been a tough racket. It takes a big staff working on punishing deadlines to aggregate the flurry of news, put some learned topspin on it and package it for readers. But that job now belongs to the Web and takes place in real time, not a week later. The NY TImes